What an incredible time. To experience white water rafting down the Zambezi River!! Rylan and I went for the all day trip and had such a great time. The guides were awesome and they river was so warm!!
Before we started for the day we had this great Scottish guide show us the ins and outs of being on the water. I was so nervous!! We drove out to the launch site and hiked down the gorge to get to the river.
All strapped up with a huge life jacket and helmet we started down the river. After some more instruction we were off! So first rapid we hit we go in paddling, it was called “Morning Glory”(which was ironic since there was a couple skinny dipping as we launched). As we went into the first rapid the guide shouts down, we all hassled to a low position and held on to the rope tightly, before we knew it we were flipping over and riding out the rest of the rapid hanging on for dear life. That was a terrifying experience, I closed my eyes, seized right up, inhaled some water and was gasping for air while being thrashed with water and trying to saved my water show that was half off my foot. When the ride finally stopped then we had to go back under to flip the raft back over. It took a few to catch my breathe and was stuck with a raft full of adrenaline junkies for the morning. This was a time to force myself over the fears. I prayed that the Lord wouldn’t let us flip again. I began to calm down and kept telling myself this was fun and I’d be safe. Before I knew it is I was having a blast and really enjoying the thrill of the river.
The Zambezi is an incredible river, one of the top rivers in the world to white water rafting or kayak. It takes 4 days to fully travel and has Crocodiles in it. One thing don’t forget is the peace you feel in the mid sections between rapids. We got the chance to float on our backs for a while down the river, what an experience floating down a river staring up out of the gorge. We made it through the rest of the morning without flipping so I was very happy.
The afternoon we ended up with a large group of 15 of us, people of every nation it seemed! The first few rapids went great but soon we hit a class five and flipped our boat again. this time was way better for me, way calmer and was able to focus on calming a Dutch girl who was not prepared to what white water rafting entailed. The second section of the trip was quite a bit more subdued compared to the first half I will say. Near the end we actually did see a small crocodilenear a shore So that kind of brought us back to reality and these aren’t empty waters.
So in the end we went through 25 rapids, white water rafted and swam the Zambezi and technically swam with Crocodiles. It was quite the day! To top it off I left with a great souvenir of a glorious sun burn! Even two applications of SPF 50 + 60 didn’t really help I guess. Just praying it heals up quicker than my last time!
Well this is the end of our two down days, just wish I had pictures of the trip to post now. Tomorrow we leave Livingstone and he’d North to Kolomo to start working more with the villages and see a well get drilled. Time to do what we came all this way to do.
Good night everyone!!